Darth Maul
Darth Maul, later known as Maul, is a major antagonist in the Star Wars franchise. He was a Sith warrior and the first apprentice of Emperor Palpatine prior to the Battle of Naboo and his abandonment by his former master. A Zabrak Nightbrother male from Dathomir, Maul later resurfaced during the Clone Wars and sought revenge against all who had wronged him turning to a life of crime and terrorism and plunged much of the galaxy into fear and chaos in the process. He is the archenemy of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul first appeared as the central antagonist of The Phantom Menace, the first film of the prequel trilogy. He was later a major antagonist in the 2008-2014 television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, serving as the final antagonist of Season 4, and as one of the main antagonists of Season 5. He also appeared as a major antagonist in the series Star Wars: Rebels, appearing as one of the main antagonists of the two-part Season 2 finale (alongside Darth Vader), and as the secondary antagonist of Season 3. He next appeared as the overarching antagonist of Solo: A Star Wars Story. In The Phantom Menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story, he was portrayed by Ray Park, who also played Toad and Snake Eyes, but his voice was provided by Peter Serafinowicz. In his TV appearances and Solo: A Star Wars Story, he was voiced by Sam Witwer, who also played Galen Marek/Starkiller in the Force Unleashed, and the Son in Clone Wars. Personality Darth Maul is driven by pure hatred for all things, particularly the Jedi, though he does have a sense of honor, granting worthy foes quick deaths. He also had respect and possibly even attachment for Sidious, despite his torturous upbringing at his hands. Maul focuses on complete victory at any cost and even his master finds it somewhat terrifying how much pain he will endure to succeed in his goals. Maul bravely takes on any challenge, but is also extremely brutal, arrogant, aggressive and gloating, best exemplified by one point, where he believed he could fight and defeat the entire Jedi Order. Sidious often had to warn Maul to watch his pride, saying that despite his fierce fighting skill, he is no one-man army. Maul was once dependable and loyal to his master, but still wondered about his part in the Grand Plan of the Sith and knew he could not carry on the Sith's legacy, having only been trained as an assassin. He feared what might happen if Sidious were to meet his end unexpectedly, and had no idea of how to carry out the Grand Plan alone. Maul also realizes he cannot maintain any secret identity like Sidious does because of his appearance. He lacks a complete understanding of the galaxy despite his knowledge in the world of politics and crime, though he realizes the Jedi are the true enemy, not the Republic. Maul has no patience for the useless, but can take notice of the more talented. He is determined to be the greatest warrior via any means of self-improvement and his near-death at the hands of Obi-Wan has made him more bitter. Maul is a cunning, ruthless, traitorous, and manipulative killer who has no qualms with killing civilians or using taunting to unsettle his opponents in battle. His time in isolation had made him more patient and able to function as a leader in his quest for revenge, not just a follower. Maul is determined to kill Sidious and his new apprentice, Count Dooku, whom he considers a pretender Sith, and later Darth Vader, who he saw as a dangerous opponent. Near at his death however, Maul lost most of his hatred for Obi-Wan, as he is embraced by him. When Obi-Wan confirms the fate of the Chosen One, Maul shares his belief that he (Luke Skywalker) would avenge them both. This concludes that Maul was not entirely the monster that most saw him as, but truly a tragic character who had lost everything he cared about due to Darth Sidious' actions, otherwise the most, similar to Darth Vader. Powers and Abilities Maul is extremely skilled and resourceful at wielding lightsabers and focuses more on physical skill than using spiritual and psychological tactics to crush his foes, though he has used these more lately. Maul is best known for his double-ended saberstaff the second blade of which he often used to catch his opponents off guard. He also combines his lightsaber wielding with hand-to-hand combat, making him a much more dangerous opponent. When Maul cannot win with pure martial skill, he uses tactics to win the day. He is amazingly skilled in using the Force, which grants him telekinetic abilities such as Force choke, Force grip, and the power to send out blasts of Force lightning, which he can also resist. Maul is also skilled with technology, building his speeder bike and Dark Eye probe droids and modifying a protocol droid to become an assassin droid to protect his ship. Maul also possesses an extreme endurance to physical pain. Relationships Obi-Wan Kenobi Maul has been Obi-Wan's nemesis since the day Maul killed Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi Master of Obi-Wan in 32 BBY. Enraged by the death of his master, Obi-wan fought with Maul with rage and after nearly falling into the void, he managed to raise himself up and cut Maul in two and watched him fall thinking he had killed Darth Maul. During the 10 years he spent on Lotho Minor, Maul had gone mad and amnesiac, but he still remembered the one who ruined his life and cut off half of his body, even repeating his name in his moments of insanity. His hatred for Kenobi kept his spirit alive. Maul would later meet Kenobi, bent on getting revenge against him. Years after the rise of the Empire, as Obi-wan was in hiding on Tatooine, Maul found him and challenged him to one final duel. After being defeated by Obi-Wan, the dying Maul shared his belief that the Chosen One (Luke Skywalker) would avenge them both by destroying the Sith. Darth Sidious Darth Sidious kidnapped Maul from his mother when he was young to raise and train him to be his apprentice. Maul trained hard under Sidious, whom Maul gained some sense of attachment to and thus devoted himself to serving his master's will. When Maul was seemingly killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sidious felt no real loss and simply replaced Maul with a new apprentice. Over 10 years later, they met again, Maul pretending to wish to serve Sidious again, but the Sith Lord saw through Maul and dueled him and his brother, the latter of whom he killed while taking Maul to use as he saw fit. He used Maul as bait to lure out his mother and kill her, and when Maul escaped Sidious no longer considered him a real threat. Maul's hatred and bitterness towards Sidious (and the Sith as a whole) spurred him to find ancient Sith artifacts to use to exact his revenge. He even believed that the prophecy of the Chosen One, who would destroy the Sith once and for all, would come true. Ezra Bridger Ezra Bridger was tricked by Maul during their mission to Malachor into trusting him, paving the way for a potential master-apprentice relationship between the two. Maul also had an effect on Ezra with his words, causing him to begin to believe that to fight his enemies, he needed to think like them. Though Ezra currently sees Maul as an enemy and blames him in part for the supposed death of Ahsoka Tano, Maul still currently believes that Ezra may yet join him. In the end, thanks to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ezra was saved from Maul's temptations to lure him over to the Dark Side. Dryden Vos Maul is the secret head of the Crimson Dawn syndicate, but he lets Vos act as the face and handle the day-to-day operations. After Vos is killed by Qi'ra, Maul cows the latter into answering to him. Quotes Trivia *Darth Maul's signature is his own red dual lightsaber which resembles a spear. *In The Phantom Meance, Darth Maul was portrayed by Ray Park, a martial arts specialist and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz. Many fans wanted to know more about Maul after the movie, mostly due to his lack of lines, resulting in expansion on his character in books and comics. *Maul was designed by Iain McCaig, who designed him based on his concepts of his "worst nightmare", requested by George Lucas. One of his initial concepts featured a design where Maul was portrayed as a pale white figure covered in blood-red ribbons. The design was scrapped as Lucas felt it was too scary, though it was later used as a basis for the Nightsisters (specifically for Mother Talzin). *Maul is the main antagonist of the Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic ''Playset in ''Disney Infinity 3.0. *It has been suggested that the Jedi never knew Maul's name, though there have been times in the Expanded Universe when the Jedi referred to him by name, but these are considered errors. *Each villain who helps Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels foreshadows a different aspect of what happens in Anakin's future as Darth Vader. In Darth Maul's case, it's the apprentice who enforces Sidious' will and is the embodiment of pure anger and rage. *Maul's last words to Obi-Wan were a foreshadowing of Obi-Wan's death in A New Hope, the first film in the original Star Wars trilogy. *Maul appears in Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out. This is non-canonical since the special is set after A New Hope and Maul died before A New Hope. *Maul is one of the few Star Wars characters who survived the prequel trilogy, excluding the characters who were in the original trilogy (ie; Obi-Wan and Sidious) *His Lego figure as well as his appearance in The Empire Strikes Out and Lego Star Wars: Darth Maul's Mission, depicted his horns as black. *It is debated over Darth Maul and Palpatine which one is the main antagonist of The Phantom Menace. Some say it is Maul since he is a more prominent character and the one in charge during the film's climax. Others say it is Sidious because he made more appearances in the film than Maul. This is also debated with Stinky Pete and Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2 and Ben Ravencroft and Sarah Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo! And The Witch's Ghost, two other movies released in 1999. Although Sidious did not fight the protagonists at the end, he played a more important role, and also controlled both Maul and the Trade Federation, ultimately making Sidious the main antagonist of the movie. However, Maul was still The Heavy as he was the one driving the plot. *Maul was originally can be considered as the "evil counterpart" of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: **Both were slaves as children, but then were passed off to learn the ways of the force. **Both were incredibly strong with the force at a young age, highlighted by Palpatine in Episodes I and III. **Both formed teacher-student/brotherly relationships with an older warrior (Savage Oppress for Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi for Anakin). **Both were bested by Obi-Wan Kenobi in battle by getting nearly killed and were restored to life with cybernetics. **Both were eventually cast aside by Palpatine in the favor of another potential apprentice (Maul for Dooku and Vader for Luke). *The Lipstick-Face Demon, the main antagonist of the 2010 horror film Insidious, is very similar to Darth Maul in his physical appearance. The reason for this is that Maul was the inspiration. *In the comics incarnations of Darth Maul, when he was once a boy, he had two little horns near his ears but in the film he has more than two horns and they are placed differently. *In the film, Maul was somewhat silent, calm and not very sadistic. But after his mind was restored by his mother, Maul was never the same again: He became very talkative, wanting at any price to take revenge, provocative, manipulative and even more sadistic than Dooku himself. It is possible that the ten long years he spent on Lotho Minor had changed him forever despite his fully restored mind. *Maul is the second Sith apprentice to die, the first being Count Dooku, and the third being Darth Vader. **Maul is also the second oldest Sith apprentice, only behind Dooku. *Ironically, while Maul in his last moments believed Luke Skywalker would destroy the Sith and avenge him, the one who would end up doing so was none other than one of his replacements as Darth Sidious' apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, the boy that Qui-Gon Jinn protected from him years ago. *In Angry Birds: Star Wars, he retains his personality from before, though his reveal shows him comically getting frustrated with his lightsaber. He can spin his lightsaber around him. Also, he is not cut in half like his original incarnation was. He is portrayed by a minion pig. 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